Old Habits
by Morwen Elda
Summary: ONE SHOT: It's been many years since the war ended. Hermione has returned to work after giving birth to Rose, and runs into the last person she expects to see.


_I was bored earlier today and felt like writing a one-shot. This is dedicated to ToManyLetters since he provided me with the prompt I used: Pansy and Hermione meet after seven years in the Ministry of Magic._

_Enjoy the story, and please leave reviews._

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Hermione sighed and shuffled some papers aside on her desk. Usually she liked to keep it clean and organized, but this last week had been more than a little hectic. This was her first day back after her second round of maternity leave. She hadn't been sure about returning just yet, but Ron had convinced her that he would be able to take care of Rose and Hugo today, and then his mother would be back in town to baby-sit. 

As much as she loved having her mother-in-law around to watch the kids, she was glad that Arthur and Molly had been able to get away. With all their children now married and moved out of the house, the couple had been saving money so that they could go on the honeymoon they never got to have. Hermione couldn't think of two people more deserving, and was thrilled to hear they were going to finally have a vacation for just them.

Despite her worry about her children, Hermione knew Ron would take care of them (though she wasn't sure if the house would be in tact when she returned home), and was glad to be back at work. It hadn't really been hard to decide what she wanted to do. Harry and Ron had been set on being Aurors for as long as she could remember, and she couldn't imagine Harry as anything else. The two had laughed at her when she said she wanted to really take SPEW farther, and had been even more surprised when Hermione got a job working for the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, under a new section know as the Section for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare.

While she had given up on some of her original goal of getting them wages and clothes, she had eventually found several things that could be done to make their lives better. A policy had been passed that would allow the elves to take sick days now and then (though most elves didn't object to this, not many took them either) and one that would allow for the removal of elves who are beaten or abused.

Over time she had worked her way up to become the department head. Since then she spent the first part of everyday filling out paperwork from each of the divisions and cleaning up small messes here and there. Her recent time off work however let her work pile up on her. For a while Ron had brought home the paperwork each day and returned it the next day, but for the last week not a single paper had been filed.

A knock on the door made her groan and look up form one of her many forms.

"Come in," she called, dropping her head into her hands and running them through her hair. She'd been doing that a lot today making it even more bushy than it usually was.

"Hermione," it was Hanna Abbot, her secretary of the department. She waited for her superior to look up before continuing. "It seems that Hagrid has been, err, raising some new pets that got loose in London. Several muggles were there."

"Were any of them injured?" Hermione knew all too well the kinds of pets that Hagrid liked, and could only imagine the damage a fully grown Blast-Ended Skrewt could cause to muggle London.

"No, nothing like that," Hannah replied, "but they'll still need their memories modified." Hermione nodded.

"Send someone up from the OHQ, please."

Once Hannah swept out of the room, Hermione leaned over and grabbed another form, filling out the information that the Obliviator would need. No sooner than she had finished there was another knock on the door. This time the person didn't bother to wait for an answer, which was understandable as they had been sent for. Hannah probably even told them to come on in.

Hermione added the finishing touches to the form as she started to explain the situation.

"Some kind of magical creature got loose in muggle London. You'll need to modify their memories and bring the creatures back here."

She paused to look at a map on the wall. Small dots marked all the known magical creatures in Britain that would cause a stir if muggles had seen them. Fortunately, since Hermione had been in office, Hagrid had started putting tracking charms on his "pets."

"Looks like it's just outside of Diagon Alley."

As Hermione raised her head to hand the form off to the obliviator, her eyes locked with one of the last people she expected to see.

"Pansy? Pansy Parkinson?"

"It's Pansy Nott now," the girl replied.

Her silk robes still gave off the impression of arrogance, but the way she had her hair tied back showed she was serious about her job.

"I- I didn't know you worked at the ministry," Hermione stammered.

"Something finally got past the know-it-all then."

"We're a bit too old for such games aren't we?"

"I'm surprised they gave someone like you such a position here." Pansy continued.

Hermione sighed, trying not to let it get to her. She was far too old to be upset by childish taunting. Perhaps a change of subject.

"I always figured you'd end up married to Malfoy."

For a moment, Hermione thought she saw a flash of pain in the other girl's eyes.

"He married Daphne." She said stiffly. "No doubt that you're with the weasel."

Hermione felt her cheeks blush, but she kept her head up as she replied.

"Yes, I did, we just had our second child actually."

Pansy sneered but replied.

"We've only got one at the moment, we're planning on another one soon though."

"How long have you been working here?"

"Seven years next month."

"Oh, I've been here a little longer. I'm surprised we haven't run into each other before now."

"Are you going to give me that form so I can go do my job?"

"Right." Hermione handed over the paper, wishing that there was something more hospitable she could say. They'd never gotten along, but the war had been a part of that. As the other girl's hand rested on the door know Hermione stopped her.

"Pansy, wait. I was wondering, maybe we should have dinner or something sometime, let the kids meet each other. Give them a chance to grow up without the prejudices we had."

It actually looked as if Pansy was thinking it over. She hadn't turned to look at Hermione, but she hadn't stormed out either.

"I don't think so," was the last thing Pansy said before she closed the door behind her.

Hermione sighed and looked back down at her cluttered desk. She still remembered the sorting hat advising all the houses to unite, remembered how almost all of Hogwarts had wanted to help fight that final battle. She really had hoped that the next generation would really get a fresh start. _So much for that idea._

A slight smirk crossed Hermione's face. _At least now I know what obliviator to request for the really dangerous jobs._


End file.
